My Switzerland

At the start of March I went to Switzerland for a week to do the second part of Cognitive Coaching.  The workshop was held at the Inter-Community School in Zurich, but I went to Glenda's for the weekend.  It was such a joy to see old friends, breathe clean air, and look at beautiful views.

On my second day in Switzerland I went out for a morning walk with Leon.  We did a great walk around Morschach with beautiful views out over the Vierwäldstattersee.  It was such a beautiful time of year to be there!

On Sunday afternoon Glenda and I went into Zug and met friends at the Skybar.  Once again it was great to look out over my "old" views of the Zugersee.

For the days of the course itself I went and stayed with David and Ruth in Forch.  On my first day there I went into Zurich for the day with Erica.  We had a good walk through the streets and into several churches and then ended up at the Lindt factory.

While staying with David and Ruth, we met up with Vitor in Zurich.  As Vitor said "This is the beginning of the end."  We were such a great team - and now none of us work at ISZL anymore.

My dear friend Karen was due to have surgery and I planned to meet her after this at the hospital in Zurich.  David even went along to the hospital - only to find that her operation had been postponed because she'd picked up an infection.  So I went to visit her at her home instead (which was actually much nicer than going to see her in hospital).

After visiting Karen, I met Katja and we walked from Cham, along the lake, through Zug to Oberwil.  Again a fabulous spring day and so many lovely memories of when I lived there.

It was a great week and I hope it's not too long before I'm back in this great place with all my great friends again.

A visit from Paul and Jan at Holi

March was a busy month!  It started with a visit from Jan and Paul, who had been travelling round south India since January.  We spent a day downtown (intending to go to a wine festival which when we got there had been cancelled due to bad weather!)  So we hung out around the Gateway of India and the Hanging Gardens on Malabar Hill, with its view of Chowpatty and the Queen's Necklace (Marine Drive).

After this we went to Bandra for drinks as the sun went down, followed by a walk up Pali Hill and a meal at Pali Village Cafe.

That week it was also Holi.  As usual we celebrated this at school with lots of water and coloured powder.

The Mahindra Blues Festival 2015

It was an absolutely brilliant festival and Buddy Guy was amazing. It's hard to believe this man is 78 when you see him perform. Known as the "bridge" between blues and rock, he had a profound influence on Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, to name just a few.

Buddy Guy was performing with Quinn Sullivan, a young man who has been playing guitar since he was 3 (and he is only 15 now!). He was discovered by Buddy Guy when he was 8 and invited on stage to perform with him at a concert. 

Such a great evening.

Nashik - one of India's holiest cities

Nashik is around 170 Kms from Mumbai and is one of India's holiest cities. It has hundreds of ancient temples and is one of the 4 places in the world that hosts the Kumbh Mela.  This is a mass Hindu pilgrimage in which Hindus gather to bathe in a sacred river.  It is the largest single peaceful gathering in the world, with around 100 million people making the pilgrimage.  It is held once every 3 years and rotates around 4 cities in India (so it is held in Nashik once every 12 years).

Nashik is also mentioned in Hindu mythology as the place where Lord Rama lived during his 14 years in exile.  The city is the site of more than 100 ancient temples.  

Nashik got its name from another Hindu myth.  Lakshmana cut off the nose of Supanakha, and the word "nasika" in Sanskrit means nose.  Nashik is also mentioned in the Ramayana as it's the site of the Sita Gumpha caves, from where Sita, Lord Rama's wife, was abducted by Ravana.   I went into the caves and had to crawl through a tiny hole and down some steps.  It was a very tight fit!

SulaFest

This weekend a group of us went to Nashik to the SulaFest.  This is a wine and music festival held at the Sula Vineyards, about 170 kms away from Mumbai.  We drove up after school on Friday, and came back on Sunday evening, which was a perfect timing for a weekend getaway.

We stayed in an AirB&B homestay.  The place was run by a couple who had an organic farm outside of Nashik and it was nicely decorated with recycled materials.  The photo below shows a group of us up on the roof terrace.

There was plenty to do at the SulaFest.  There was the opportunity to do wine tasting, to try different foods, to sit and lounge in the sun and watch various bands.  Top of the list was Indie Rock band Young the Giant, but probably one of my favourite bands was Yes Sir Boss from the UK.

On both the Saturday and Sunday mornings before going to the festival we spent time in Nashik - there was lots of see.  I especially enjoyed the drive - we passed some amazing scenery (and also 3 horrific crashes where lorries had come off the road and were crashed in the side).  The road was good but obviously people were not driving carefully.

Aksa Beach - a short getaway from Mumbai

We had a long weekend for Thanksgiving and so Lex and I decided we'd go away for a couple of days.  First we thought of going to Alibaug, where we went last year, but everything was already fully booked by the time we got round to trying to book, however we did manage to find a place north of Mumbi at Aksa Beach.

Aksa Beach is around an hour away from where we live in Mumbai.  We originally tried to get a taxi, but none of the drivers seemed to know where we wanted to go, so in the end we got a rickshaw.  It was a reasonable journey, though personally I think a bit dangerous to drive at speed on the Western Expressway in a rickshaw.

We got a room that looked towards the beach.  The resort has a nice garden and pool.  Around the pool are plenty of places to sit and laze.  There are loungers, hammocks and chairs.  The place wasn't busy at all, though maybe that was because we arrived on a Friday when most people were at work.

There were a couple of restaurants overlooking the pool.  We ate all our meals there because there wasn't much else in the neighbourhood.

We walked on the beach.  Right in front of the hotel there were some beach shacks, though they didn't seem to be very busy.

The sunsets on the two nights we were there were beautiful.  It was really good to sit by the pool and watch the sun dip down into the Arabian Sea.

Kerala Sunsets

The sunsets in Varkala were really beautiful.  The sun started going down around 5.30 pm and it took until at least 6.30 pm before it was dark.  It was possible to sit in one of the many cliff top bars and just watch the sun and the waves.

On "our" beach tables and chairs were set out for a good view of the sun.  You could sit and eat right by the sea - a very "Shirley Valentine" moment!

This is the view from the Fisherman's Art Cafe.